Raul Rivero, a journalist and director of Cuba Free Press, an independent news
agency in Cuba, said on Thursday that he, the journalists of his agency, and
opposition leader Oswaldo Paya will be among the first to whom the new
repressive laws will be applied. They are threatened with 20-year
sentences.

"I received a direct threat that when the laws becomes effective I will be on
the list of those to whom the law will be applied," said Rivero during a Radio
Marti telephone interview. "They also mentioned others like Oswaldo Paya, who
are not journalists."

Rivero said that Wednesday night he was driven to a house of the Office of
State Security in the exclusive neighborhood of Siboney, where two officers
awaited him.

"I was not arrested. It was a three-hour conversation that was held in a
decent and even cordial manner," Rivero affirmed. "We talked about the new
law, of the work of independent journalists. They expressed their point of
view, I expressed mine."

Rivero added that the officers were steadfast in their warning that they would
not tolerate the work of independent journalists or the existence of
opposition groups.

"Everytime I told them that I planned to continue with our informative work in
a decent and respectful manner, because I am not going to become a prisoner of
a law that does not pertain to me, since I am not a delinquent, they would say
'It's alright but the law will be applied to you regardless.'"

Rivero described the actual situation of the independent journalists as
"exhausting" and reaffirmed that as independent journalists they do not
respond to any political group, color or ideology.